


Wilder Mind

by the_fangirl_stories



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: After Eleven (Stranger Things) Closes the Gate, F/M, Inspired by Stranger Things (TV 2016), Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-01-29 06:18:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12625035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_fangirl_stories/pseuds/the_fangirl_stories
Summary: AHHH so first fic here! Characters aren't mine and all that jazz...----------After the events of Season 2, the gang returns to life as *somewhat* normal in Hawkins, Indiana. Will notices something different about Nancy, Jonathan and Steve's high school student body, and yet another adventure ensues.





	1. The Cleric Spotting

The middle school's bell rang for the final time that day. That was the first time that the gang saw the Cleric. She was walking out of the high school slightly behind Nancy, Steve and Jonathan; however she wasn't part of the conversation that was taking place between the three elder group members. It was the first day of winter. The clouds covered the sky with a light grey tinge that made reality seem almost surreal. Exams were coming soon, and Mother Nature attempted to combat the school stress with the lightest, yet most elegant sprinkle of snow atop of the small town of Hawkins. It had dusted just about everything, including Jonathan's car and the gang's bikes attached to the bike rack. The trees, although the last leaf had fallen off of them almost a week ago, had been covered as well with the light dusting that was still continuing making the trees look eerie and beautiful at the same time. The snowflakes that continued as the gang dusted off the snow from their bikes into small mounds on the ground. The middle school doors flooded outwards with children and teachers alike, waiting with anticipation to start their weekend. The high school bell rang not long after the middle school had emptied its contents. 

Despite whatever Dustin and Mike recalled, it was actually Will that caught the first glimpse of the Cleric. She wasn't necessarily different from the rest of the crowd and blended in quite nicely. Her wavy light brown hair and long dark eyelashes were sprinkled with snowflakes the moment she stepped out of the high school. Her burgundy sweater covered the top of her warm coloured plaid skirt; her knee high socks were thicker than what she usually would wear as the weather that morning wasn't calling for snow. Her Mary-Jane shoes complimented her outfit, nicely -- even if they were just 'plain Mary-Jane' shoes. She readjusted the dark brown knapsack that was situated on her back and picked up her pace, eventually passing Nancy, Jonathan and Steve. None of them acknowledged her presence. She kept walking.  
It was at this time, Will had locked his gaze on the Cleric and her movements. Will and the Cleric locked eyes for only part of a second before she looked away. It wasn't until Dustin asked Will a question and received no response did anyone know that Will had separated himself from the conversation and was lost within his own world.  
"Will!" Mike called, shaking Will's shoulder to try and shake his friend back into existence. Mike's reasoning for this was that he had already lost his friend once, almost lost him again after that and he refused to believe that there was going to be a third time when he would have to see his friend suffer.  
"Yeah?" Will called back a little absent-mindedly. He turned around to meet the gazes of the rest of the gang for a quick moment. There were looks of curiosity, concern and slight discontent from Lucas as he was cold. Will turned around once more, trying to find the Cleric. She had disappeared.  
"We wanted to know if you had a preference of the arcade over playing DnD in Mike's basement...?" Lucas let his sentence trail off at the end, leaving the question open for slight interpretation.  
"Dustin thinks we should all go to the arcade," Max started. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, like usual; however there was one wisp of hair that danced in the wind and Will found it slightly amusing. "But I'm against that idea because I don't have any quarters."  
"But I need to make sure that my score is still the top score on Dig Dug!" Dustin exclaimed a little exasperated. They had to clean the snow off of their bikes once more, as the snow had accumulated.  
"So what do you think, Will?" Lucas posed the question once more, rephrasing it this time around. "Should we go to the arcade or to Mike's house."

For Will, this decision was almost a no-brainer. It was the first day of winter and it was snowing outside. There were extra comfy blankets sitting in Mike's basement and if the heater was on -- which it was-- then it would have been like sitting in a private ski chalet. Will already knew that Mrs. Wheeler would bring them hot cocao, and he really enjoyed that.  
"I'd like to cast my vote for DnD, if that's alright." Will stated. Secretly, everyone but Dustin was relieved. They started to unlock their bikes from the rack and headed over to the Wheeler residence.


	2. The Fight of the Dungeon Master

Dustin complained the entire way home about how his three week running top score was probably beaten the one and only day that he hadn't gone to check on it. Max wished she could cover her ears; but she found herself on the back of Lucas' bike, as the snow was already too high for her to skateboard along with the boys. Lucas was enjoying Max's hands on the side of his torso a little too much, and without meaning too had tuned out Dustin. Will was too busy feeling the cold, brisk wind in his hair as this was the first time in a few weeks that he was able to ride his bike with his friends, as Joyce had been on his case far too much; therefore unwillingly tuning out Dustin, even though he could hear him in the back of his mind. The boys turned into the Wheeler's driveway and saw that Hopper's beige police car was parked near the garage. The boys hopped off of their bikes, leaving them to fall on top of one another near the back of Hopper's car.  
"Why is Hopper here?" Max asked, slightly rhetorically; but truthfully she really wanted to know. The boys, on the other hand, knew that where ever Hopper went this week, Eleven was with him. Which means that this must have been her one request, to see her friends. Dustin was now glad that they had decided to come and play DnD at the Wheeler's. Mike was the first one to reach the door, flanked by Lucas and Will, followed by Dustin and Max. The door flew open and revealed the gang to the patrons within the house; Mrs. Wheeler, Chief Hopper and Eleven, just as the gang had suspected. There was no conversation needed between the children as they all dashed for the basement door, a thunderous herd flying down the stairs within seconds; leaving the Chief slightly confused and Mrs. Wheeler slightly annoyed.  
"I guess they'll be wanting hot cocoa soon. Did you want to lend me your set of hands, Chief Hopper?" Mrs. Wheeler turned towards the Hawkins Chief of Police, smoothing down the apron attached to her waist.  
"Sure, why the hell not?" Chief Hopper said reluctantly, rolling up his sleeves after a long sigh. They started pulling mugs and cocoa from the cabinets.

"But you always get to be the Dungeon Master!" Lucas whined at Mike, who in all fairness -- according to Lucas-- should be giving someone else a turn to master the dungeon. The group of children had been sitting in the basement for the past few minutes, attempting to sort out characters and how they would incorporate Eleven and Max into their sophisticated game. The boys knew that adding two new, unskilled players into a game at the level they were at was going to be very difficult.  
"Maybe you should play this time, and let someone else be Dungeon Master." Will chimed in.  
"We always stick to the same roles!" Mike countered.  
"I'd like to try and be Dungeon Master... Only if that's okay." Max tried to suggest.  
"No, that's not fair!" Mike yelled.  
"Fair?" Eleven asked quietly and turned to Max.  
"Y'know, Mike thinks its not right to change the roles because they always play in those roles; but the others want to switch 'cause they think that that is fair." Max explained. The arguing went on for a few more minutes before Eleven had enough and flipped the board over.  
"There. That's fair." She stated, with a slight smirk resting on her face. Max was astonished that what had happened had actually happened in front of her. Mike went to flip the board back over and it wouldn't budge. Eleven was holding it down with her mind.  
"What the hell, Eleven!?" Mike yelled again.  
"I'm not letting it go until we are all fair." She stated calmly and went to sit down beside Dustin, who had taken a seat sometime during the argument.  
"Now THAT is how to solve an argument," Max said with a hint of amusement laced within her voice, wagging her pointer finger at Eleven in amazement. The basement went silent, as Eleven had taken a death grip hold on the situation and it wasn't going to be solved by arguing and everyone knew it. Not even a minute passed before Chief Hopper and Mrs. Wheeler started descending down the stairs, hands carrying trays full of cups of cocoa. With the blink of an eye, Eleven flipped the game over once again and the characters fell into their places, the campaign book flying open. She made it seem that they had been playing for the entirety of the time that they had been downstairs in the basement.  
"How's the game going?" Mrs. Wheeler asked solely out of politeness. Mike had attempted to explain it to her once before and it had bored her out of her known mind.  
"Great." Eleven answered. "I exploded Lucas by accident." It was at that moment that the children caught on to what Eleven was doing. She had lied to Chief Hopper and Mrs. Wheeler about the campaign and lack thereof. Dustin was the first one out of the group to add an alibis to Eleven's false story.  
"Yeah, but that's what you get when you place a mage with a knight in the Ice Cavern of the Beyond." Everyone but Hopper and Mrs. Wheeler knew that the 'Ice Cavern of the Beyond' was nowhere close to being a location that was even conceived for the DnD universe, but the adults didn't need to know that information. Mrs. Wheeler didn't want to push any farther, as she knew that the boys would gladly sit her down and explain everything in excruciating details.  
"Well that sounds very exciting, we'll let you kids get back to your game then." She stated and walked up the stairs back to the kitchen faster than she cared to admit with Hopper following her slightly father behind. 

"Are you ready to start the game or not?" Eleven asked the group, and they all sat down around the table and commenced with Mike as the Dungeon Master once more.


	3. The Meet and Greet

Will returned home long after the sun had set. The campaign ended quite shortly after it began, as Hopper had to take Eleven home and Billy came looking for Max. The boys continued the campaign for a little while longer, but they came to the conclusion that it would be better to continue with the girls there, so they could continue teaching them instead of making it even more confusing for the two of them. Will pushed the door to his house open. Jonathan was sitting in the living room, fiddling with a pencil trying to concentrate on his homework. There was a nice smell wafting from the kitchen, even though Joyce wasn't home yet. Jonathan was making dinner tonight, again. The kitchen smelt vaguely of steamed vegetables and reheated roast from last night's dinner. Will's footsteps went unanswered until he stepped on a creaky floorboard. Jonathan looked up, startled and only relaxed his features when he realized that it was his own brother.  
"Hey bud," Jonathan started, as he picked the books up from his lap and set them down on the couch beside him. In a couple of strides, Jonathan was standing by his brother and ruffling his hair.  
"Hey," Will greeted back.  
"Dinner's almost done." Jonathan told him and went back to do his homework. Without another word, Will walked into the kitchen and began to draw while he waited for the timer to go for dinner.

\----------

The next day, Will got a ride to school with Jonathan. The snow that had started just the day before had made the roads absolutely difficult to ride his bike in, and since Jonathan was heading the same way that morning, he happily obliged. The ride to school was uneventful and filled with the AC/DC coming out of Jonathan's car radio. Jonathan was too busy focusing on driving, so Will stared out the window. The snow was still coming down, instead today the snowflakes were enlarged and fluffy; almost as if someone had sprinkle cotton balls all over Hawkins. Jonathan parked in a parking stall and put his car in park. He and Will said their goodbyes and Jonathan walked into the high school that was next to Will's middle school. The high school was full of people who had not taken a liking to Jonathan, making him an outsider. The only tethering point between him and the school was Nancy. Nancy was more well-known than he was, so she kept him informed of various school activities, extra-curriculars and extra-'extra'-curriculars,  
"If you catch my drift." Nancy had said when she told Jonathan about her after school plans one day. It was parties, Jonathan thought right after she ended the conversation. She's gonna invite me to parties; I'm gonna have to go now. They had recently gotten together, as they both were on a quest for knowledge and ended up together in a night of lust. Jonathan tried to put it out of his mind; he really didn't want to, but he had to. He really didn't want to deal with a boner in class. 

Nancy was beautiful, and Jonathan loved every single bit of her. Nancy was at the other end of the hall, talking to some of her other friends, and Jonathan had caught himself staring at her, indulging in her presence. She hadn't noticed him staring at her from down the hall, when Jonathan's attention was quickly diverted. There was a small squeak, and the sound of books clattering on the floor. Jonathan looked down, slightly surprised.  
"I'm so sorry," the girl started. That was the first time that Jonathan met the Cleric, although he didn't know it at the time. She picked herself up and dusted her light blue jeans off and adjusted her yellow plaid sweater. She then crouched back down to pick up everything she had dropped when she ran into Jonathan; her light brown hair held back with a single beret, falling in front of her face.  
"It's okay, I wasn't looking." Jonathan countered the apology with self blame. He crouched down as well to help the unknown girl pick up her books. He handed a couple back to her when his eyes wandered back to the end of the hall looking for Nancy.  
"You can go back to staring at Nancy Wheeler if you want, I've got this." She sounded slightly annoyed and Jonathan was taken aback. He now knew that the self blame was rightfully placed, and the girl knew it too. She fixed the last of what looked to be algebra papers and stood up. Jonathan stood up quickly after her, leaving him with a head rush. He pressed his thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose for a second to stop the spinning, and when he opened his eyes the girl was gone from his sight.


	4. The Algebraic Equation for Love

The first time that Steve Harrington met the Cleric was when he was sitting in algebra. She had walked in books in hand and papers in disarray, looking annoyed and a little flustered. The bell rang to signal the beginning of the period, as she hurriedly took a seat. Steve's eyes followed her as she ran to the last available seat in the class. Right next to Billy Fucking Hargrove. God, he hated that guy. The more horrid part about it was that Steve's breath was taken away. He thought that she, in all of her flustered glory, was beautiful. Steve usually wasn't a hopeless romantic, or even the love-at-first-sight type. He didn't know what to say when he saw her walk right passed him, as if he didn't exist in her world. Usually, everyone knew who he was. Not this girl, she didn't even bat an eye. It intrigued Steve beyond his own comprehension. 

Mr. Melkins, the algebra teacher, started his lesson. Steve started taking notes, the entire time he was side-eyeing the girl sitting beside Billy Hargrove. Billy was being a nuisance, as usual in Steve's opinion, and the girl sitting beside him was trying ever so hard to concentrate. Steve wished he could kick stupid Grace Beasley out of the chair beside him and offer it to the girl beside Billy. All Grace did in class was file her nails and chew gum. Steve looked up at the board, then his notes and then the girl beside Hargrove. He repeated this once, twice and until it lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Each time he looked at the girl beside Hargrove, she seemed to relax a little more, Hargrove leaning in a little closer. His lip moved, but almost no sound seemed to come out. She would giggle a little at the comment he had made while continuing to write out her notes, and Steve was irked. Hargrove literally sat there for the entire class doing nothing, and he got to flirt with the girl sitting beside him. His leather jacket stood out against her yellow plaid sweater-shirt. His mullet and all of its sharp edges contrasted with the soft flow of her light brown hair that was kept together with one singular beret. She rolled up her sleeves and rested her elbows on the desk. Steve thought he saw some writing with black ink on her wrist, he could have sworn it. When he went to look at her wrist again, the spot in question had been covered by optical obstacles. 

When the class was finally over, Steve was thanking every single deity for ending Algebra. Steve gathered his belongings and looked over to where the girl was sitting. However, she was now in a full conversation with Billy Fucking Hargrove. That guy is such a dick, thought Steve as he shook his head in disbelief. He looked back at the two of them and Hargrove was flirting, hard. The girl's weight shifted into her right hip and Steve knew that stance. That was the 'I am very unamused' stance. That was the stance that Nancy used to give him all the time. Steve got a little excited, knowing she was going to walk away from Hargrove as soon as he was done his sentence. Instead, much to Steve's dismay, the girl and Hargrove walked out of the classroom together, his black leather jacket covered arm around her soft yellow sweater covered shoulders. Steve followed them out a few people behind and he stopped dead in his tracks as he watched the event unfold. She was talking to Billy in the hallway, and she pulled out a piece of paper from behind her textbook and scribbled something down. She then handed it to Billy and he made some sort of remark that made her laugh. Billy smirked, gave her two finger-guns, kissed his teeth, winked and walked away with the piece of paper in hand. She turned around and started to turn the knob on the locker in front of her, placing her books inside when she was successful in opening it. Steve's heart dropped. She had just given him her number. There was nothing he could do about it now.


	5. The Passing Faces in Known Places

In all honesty, Dustin was hoping that the surprise pop quiz that Mr. Clarke was handing out at that very moment wasn't going to count for anything in his overall science grade. There was about half an hour left in the period and Mr. Clarke told them that they were going to be doing a pop quiz. To be fair, Dustin hadn't had the time to go over the materials from class like he usually does before he, Lucas, Mike and Will go to the arcade or go exploring; and in recent weeks, he had been too preoccupied with Dart, and the fact that Will was next to possessed by the Mind Flayer. This quiz was fairly easy, all Mr. Clarke was asking for the students to do was to label a diagram of an animal cell, which means that Dustin's mind went elsewhere while he filled it in fairly quickly. Dustin thought about Lucas and Max, and how he was happy for the two of them - even if Max made it a little awkward for them both. He was concerned for Will still, but lack of knowledge on Dustin's part for knowing how to handle a situation like Will's made that a bust. Will was still spacing out, but why? He was staring at someone the other day and Dustin didn't know what to think about that. Was Will crushing on someone? Was he still seeing the Mind Flayer? Dustin didn't know, and if it was the latter he really didn't want to find out.

He quickly handed the cell test back to Mr. Clarke, and Mr. Clarke looked supremely impressed. As always, Dustin thought to himself smugly and sat back down in his seat. He looked up at Mr. Clarke who was reading some sort of book while waiting for the rest of the class to complete the quiz. Lucas handed in the test next, and soon followed by Mike and Will. The four sat patiently in their seats as they waited for what ever came first - the last person to hand in their test or for the period bell to ring. Lucas fell asleep at his desk, Mike pulled out a book and started to read and Will pulled out some paper from his knapsack and started to draw. Dustin stared quietly out of the window. That's when he noticed Billy. Now, Billy wasn't really hard to notice by himself; but what made Billy more interesting for Dustin was that Billy was standing with a girl. The same girl that Will was staring at the other day. Now THAT was interesting, Dustin thought to himself once more. He wondered what Billy and the girl were doing together, until Billy started to 'unintentionally' flex - even though it was totally obvious. Dustin smirked, Billy didn't deserve anyone's attention especially after the way he treated Max. Speaking of Max, she was the next person to hand in the test and Dustin gazed up at the clock. There were still just over 10 minutes left in the period. Dustin signalled the rest of the group to look out the window. They were all quite shocked, to say the least. Max's feeling of shock was quickly washed over with relief. Billy never bothered her when he was dating someone. To be frank, he was actually nicer. Which was weird, like really weird; and it scared Max a little bit.

The period bell rang and a few students let out a frustrated groan, Dustin was guessing that they hadn't finished their quizzes. Without speaking, all five students sitting at the front near Mr. Clarke got up and ran out the door to the parking lot. As they emerged from the middle school, they were greeted by Steve; who, coincidentally, was also looking at the odd pairing of Max's brother with the 'new' girl. At least, they thought she was new. No one had really seen her before, but then again no one had really noticed her before. Could you really remember all of the unimportant faces in your life? 

"Hey Max!" Billy called out. Everyone was stunned. Usually he called her something along the lines of dipshit. "C'mon, we've gotta go!" He motioned her to hurry up, and then turned back to the girl. He said something and smirked, she laughed and unintentionally twirled her hair in response.  
"Coming?" Max answered quizzically and looked at her friends in pure confusion.  
"We're meeting up at my house at 8," Mike stated. "You can tell us everything then." Max nodded and went to go join Billy and the new girl at his car.


	6. Ms. Marlow

The time now was approaching 10pm and the gang was starting the fourth bout of the new Nintendo gaming system: the Colour TV Game system at Mike's house. The gang was in awe at the ability to plug in this system to the TV in Mike's basement. There were two different consoles that were different in colour that Mike had gotten from some great aunt that the gang passively dismissed. There was a faint noise from upstairs that no one seemed to notice until Mrs. Wheeler made her way down the flight of stairs and called for Max. Dustin paused the game and the gang pulled their eyes away from the TV for the first time in a few hours.   
"Max, your brother is here for you." Mrs. Wheeler called out, not bothering to descend the flight of stairs fully.  
"I'll be right up, Mrs. Wheeler. Thank you!" Max quickly chimed back.  
"So, what do you know?" Mike asked Max as he turned around quickly to try and get some information about this new girl that had started to hang out with Billy. He was still a little hesitant about letting the girl into the gang, however she DID go through the Mind Flayer event -- so it was only evident that she was included in the group activities.   
"I know that she's a girl," Max started, knowing exactly what Mike was asking about. It was the only thing that was hanging over their collective thoughts. Who was that mystery girl that was hanging around Billy?  
"No shit Sherlock," Dustin said, attempting for it to be under his breath, but it came out a little louder than expected.  
"I also know that she has no idea who my brother is, and how he charmed her to like him I have no idea." Max continued. The gang looked a little shocked and taken aback. They didn't know how to respond.  
"Did you get her name? Age? Anything?" Will asked after a brief period of silence.  
"Nothing yet, but as soon as he introduces her to me I'll let you guys know everything."

Max froze and everyone followed suit, Billy was upstairs talking to Mrs. Wheeler, waiting for Max to pack up her belongings. There was a third voice in the conversation that no one could place. Nancy was out with Jonathan tonight and Mr. Wheeler was in the den, as usual.   
"It's her!" Lucas whispered loudly. Max nodded at the group, and somehow with no words exchanged, everyone knew what to do. Max ascended the stairs and walked into the kitchen where Mrs. Wheeler, Billy and the mystery girl were seated waiting for her. The gang followed her quietly, to be heard was game over for them.   
"Hey!" Max greeted everyone in the kitchen.   
"Alright Max, let's get you home." Billy said jokingly and looked at Mrs. Wheeler and scoffed. "Kids, am I right?" Mrs. Wheeler laughed, placing her left hand over her chest delicately. She walked them to the door. Max followed behind, looking back at the gang that was still hiding at the top of the stairs. They had been standing there for a solid five minutes and no one had mentioned the mystery girl's name. Maybe tonight wasn't the night.   
"It was very nice to meet you, Mrs. Wheeler." The mystery girl said and extended her hand to Mrs. Wheeler, and Mrs. Wheeler shook it.   
"Likewise, Marlow."   
Max looked back at the gang on the stairs, eyes wide. The all looked as shocked as she felt. Dustin mouthed the words 'Holy shit'. There were smiles and goodbyes exchanged throughout, and with that Max left the Wheeler's.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, you're Max, right?" Marlow asked from the passenger seat of Billy's car, turning her body to face Max almost in its entirety. Her light brown hair fell on both sides of her face that was illuminated by the street lights on the ride home. Her smile was warm and soft, the complete opposite of Billy and she didn't know how opposites attract, but this was the most convincing argument that it was true.   
"Yeah," she said. Billy would kill her if she stepped out of line. Although, Max thought, she could make this work to her advantage. Billy wouldn't hassle her if Marlow was around. "And you're Marlow, right?"  
"Yes ma'am," she said and giggled. Billy smiled, slightly glancing at her and then looking back at the road. He was paying attention, like ACTUALLY paying attention to the road signs and was going within the speed limit. He was calm, and collected. Max was starting to wonder what the actual hell was going on and had her step- brother been abducted by aliens?  
"So, you're in Grade 8, right?"  
"Yeah," this time, Max said it to Marlow with a nod of her head. Marlow giggled again, and her smile widened.   
"That's nice, I remember 8th grade. That was a very exciting time." Max nodded and forced a smile. 

The car ride when on like that for the entire ride, until they got to a building that Max didn't recognize. It was a small red-bricked bungalow that had a few trees outside and a stone walkway up to the front door.   
"Welp, that's me!" Marlow stated. "It was very nice to meet you, Max. I hope I get to see you again soon!" and with that Marlow got out of Billy's car and walked up to the front door and waved bye as Billy pulled out of the driveway.   
"Yeah, bye." Max said a little delayed. She was still shocked as to how in the hell that girl would fall in love with her nasty ass brother. The rest of the ride home was spent in silence, however it wasn't a silence that Max dreaded, it was a silence that Max seemed to enjoy for once. It was a silence that she knew wasn't going to end with her brother's unending and unpredictable temperament

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think!! Feedback is greatly appreciated!


End file.
